Thursday, November 09, 2006

Veterans Day & 'The Girl in the Picture'

Photo, Victim and Photographer: Kim Phuc and Nick Ut

I had the privilege of covering a good many big stories during a long newspaper career. The visit of a diminutive woman by the name of Phan Ti Kim Phuc to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Veterans Day 1996 would seem to pale in comparison to the Clinton impeachment circus or O.J. Simpson trials, to name two of the biggies, but it is one that I cherish.

I had been tipped that Ms. Phuc would be making a surprise appearance at the memorial during the annual Veterans Day ceremonies. Following is the story that I wrote for the Philadelphia Daily News about this event, which for me and many other people at The Wall that day completed a circle that had been broken for many, many years:

By SHAUN D. MULLENDaily News Staff Writer

Phan Thi Kim Phuc will always be the Girl in the Photograph.

Nine years old when her South Vietnamese village was bombed in 1972, she was photographed fleeing down Highway One from the ferocious napalm attack, the clothes burned off her reed-thin body, arms outstretched and face contorted into a silent, agonizing scream.